Mohit Jain on building Miraggio, decoding consumers, and the business of handbags

What does the modern Indian woman want from her handbag? According to Mohit Jain, it’s a lot more than just good looks. The Miraggio founder talks to Cosmopolitan India about evolving consumer habits, designing for real life, and building a brand that keeps pace with the way women shop, work, move, and live.

Cosmopolitan India: The industry has been widely divided into basic bags and expensive luxury—nothing in between. How did you make functional bags feel fashionable in this in-between category?

Mohit Jain: The lifestyle is changing dramatically for this generation. Take a corporate woman—she’s earning her own money and is independent, and that purchasing power keeps growing. What she wants is variety: Multiple designs, silhouettes, and colours. Mass-market products didn’t have design, they were commodities. Premium ones were too expensive to buy in variety. That’s the gap we discovered and what Miraggio was built to fill.

CI: Having built your brand before turning 30, what are the financial habits you’d tell every young entrepreneur to hone early on?

MJ: Financial discipline, above everything. You need absolute clarity on your objective and end goal, and you need to strategise constantly—what to spend, when to spend, every month, every quarter. Without that discipline, you might have the best idea and product in the world, but your targets stay on paper.

CI: How should founders think about personal wealth while they’re still building the business?

MJ: If you want to build a large business, personal wealth creation can’t be a priority, not for the first several years. Wanting to build both in parallel is idealistic, not practical. Competition today is intense—you need content, a team, infrastructure, and celebrities backing you—and all of it requires capital. It comes down to how much you have, and how much more you’re willing to put in.

CI: Fast fashion will always be cheaper. So why would women opt for your brand?

MJ: There have always been cheaper options out there, and brands have still managed to win. For us, it comes down to the community we’ve built. Any importer can sell you a product, but they can’t sell you what Miraggio actually stands for. We’ve always kept women at the centre of everything we do, and that sense of belonging is what sets us apart.

CI: With monthly drops, how do you design something that survives past the scroll and stays relevant for years?

MJ: Two things guide every launch. First, we think about the month itself—the mood, the colours, the silhouettes, whatever’s happening culturally—and we try to build around real trends, not fads. Second, we ask: Will someone still want to wear this in two years? That’s what makes it timeless. Balancing those two things drives both relatability and repeat purchase.

CI: Miraggio is known for structured, evening-ready bags. What led to the ‘Made to Move’ collection, the pivot towards pickleball and yoga?

MJ: It came from knowing our consumers deeply, not from them asking for it directly. We know how their lifestyles are evolving, and we evolve with them. Internally, our promise is to stay agile even 10 years in. So we saw the athleisure market growing, saw people wanting better gymwear and needing a proper bag to carry it all. That’s how the ‘Made to Move’ collection came together—Pilates bags, pickleball bags, and yoga bags.

CI: Every iconic handbag brand has that one bag. What’s Miraggio’s signature bag?

MJ: Sabrina Crossbody Bag and Denice Tote Bag are the two bags people searched for by their names, and both are our top sellers. Denice turned into its own franchise—Denice and Denice 2.0 have already launched, and Denice 3.0 may not be far behind.

This article originally appeared in Cosmopolitan India's July-August 2026 print issue.

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